About the institute: The Utkal University, established in the year 1943, is the seventeenth oldest University in India. Its present campus at Vani Vihar, BHUBANESWAR is located on a sprawling 399.9 Acre area in the heart of BHUBANESWAR, with the Sainik School to its north, National High way No.5 to its south, Regional Research Laboratory and Institute of Physics to its west and the South Eastern Railway line to its east. The Foundation stone of this Campus was laid by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India on 1st January 1958 and the Campus was inaugurated by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the second President of India on 2nd January 1963. This is a teaching-cum-affiliating University. There are at present twenty-seven Post-Graduate Departments located in the University Campus for Post-Graduate studies and research in various disciplines of Science, Humanities ,Business Administration, Social Science, Law and Commerce. The total number of students in the P.G. Department of the campus at Vani Vihar is nearly 3,000. This is in fact the largest affiliating University in the country with approximately 267 affiliated Colleges (Degree Colleges-219, Professional College-44, Other Constituent Colleges-2) under its jurisdiction.

Salient features: The University has now the jurisdiction over 9 districts, viz, Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri and is spread over an area of 24,973 sq. kilometers catering to the needs of higher education of a population of more than 110 lakhs.

Unique features: At present the University has twenty-seven Post-Graduate teaching and research departments located within the campus and three constituent Institutions, viz. Directorate of Distance and Continuing Education, University Law College at Vani Vihar and M.S. Law College at Cuttack. Besides the regular courses, twenty-six sponsored courses are offered under the direct academic control of the P.G. Council of the University.